Dragons Practice: Zorn coaching himself, too

Seattle Dragons head coach Jim Zorn working on team headset communication

SEATTLE -- The headset was on Thursday.

Seattle Dragons head coach Jim Zorn was teaching.

He was also learning. Still learning, after all these decades in football.

"This was my first effort to get the headsets and to understand who can hear what," Zorn said. "What I'm trying to do is just call the personnel group, call the play, and be quiet, so they can concentrate."

That's a lesson in restraint for a coach, since it's the rare opportunity to be in the ear of all the on-field skill players, at once.

Unlike other leagues, the XFL provides radios in the helmets for the players running routes and taking handoffs, a communication device reserved for just the quarterback in other types of pro football.

Zorn says speaking clearly and concisely is the key with these communication lines -- especially because league rules dictate a faster game, and the Dragons have been ramping up their speed all month.

"The faster we work out here, the more comfortable we get. We played that practice game against the DC team in Houston, and it seemed like the tempo was up, but we were matching the tempo."

Zorn

Seattle has one more week of practice at Memorial Stadium before traveling across the country for the first game of the 2020 XFL season.

Need a kick

With kickoff just nine days away, the team is still looking for someone to placekick the ball. They currently have no kicker on their roster after exploring several options through Minicamp, Training Camp, and the return to practice in Seattle.